Thursday, November 12, 2015

City Tour and Afternoon Tea


This post will give you a better feel of the classy, charming feeling of the city of Bath I was describing in the last post.  We began our day early with a two hour walking tour of the city.  We saw multiple residential neighborhoods and ended with the heart of the city, where the Roman Baths are.

We started at the Royal Crescent, one of the most well known addresses in Bath.  The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent.  Built between 1767 and 1774, the crescent is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in The United Kingdom.  Only a few houses remain in their original layout, the rest have been divided up into apartments, and a small museum. 





For the next couple of hours our local guide lead us on a leisurely stroll through parks, residential neighborhoods, shopping streets, then we eventually ended in the main square by the baths and the cathedral.  We got an amazing glimpse at what living in Bath would be like, and it would be splendid, extremely expensive, but worth it.











Does this terraced section of the river Avon look familiar...?  It's where the scene from Les Miserables where Javert jumps into the river Seine was filmed.  The film was in post production when errors with this scene were discovered and it needed to be reshot, and Bath was chosen as the location to save the day.  Cast and crew set up for two days, shot all through the night, and then were gone.












After our wonderful city tour, we had the rest of the day free.  Since it was around lunch time, the three of us decided to grab something to eat.  We had passed a few tea rooms on our tour, and I thought it would be fun to have afternoon tea while in England.  My sweet parents agreed and we set out to decide which tea room to try out.  While reading posted menus, we found one tea room that had an entire gluten free tea, so our decision was made!





Mom and I orederd full afternoon teas, while dad got a salad and sandwich combo.  My gluten free afternoon tea was amazing!  It came with cheese and jam tea sandwiches, a scone with clotted cream and strawberry preserves, a thick slice of lemon cake, and a delectable brownie.  For my tea, I ordered lemon verbena.





Our lunch was so much fun!  It was everything I ever imagined an English afternoon tea would be.


Every pastry shop and tea room that we passed has bath buns for sale.  So we figured we better get one to go so that we could know what all the hype was about.  


After lunch we passed by the oldest house in Bath, and discovered were the famous buns came from ;)



After lunch, we decided to take a quick peek inside the Bath Abby before heading back to the hotel for a little chill time.  On the square outside the abby, there was a "stage" that hosted live music.  Musicians would get the stage for an hour, then they would switch out with another talented local.  It really added to the atmosphere of the heart of the city.








This picture shows how most cathedrals and abbeys are built in the shape of a cross.  I spent a good four months studying different church layouts in my early christian art and architecture class in college. So, I find it very fascinating,




2 comments:

  1. That is so cool that you got to have a gluten-free afternoon tea! Your photos of the Abbey are stunning!

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  2. Bath was such a charming place to wander. It was fun to have the tour, then time to explore on our own. I loved the abbey. The flowers and the afternoon tea were happy memories. We enjoyed every second, even those spent in our fun and whimsical hotel rooms.

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